BhamWiki

The popular yet contentious Wikipedia provides a chance for you and your buddies to have the final say on Parkinson’s disease or Benedict Arnold. Now, BhamWiki provides a homegrown encyclopedia of all things Birmingham, from architectural highlights to zoological oddities.

The latest offerings include current events, a depressingly long list of city homicides this year and a handful of featured photos. Like all Wiki sites, what it lacks in looks, it makes up for in seemingly endless topical browsing.

The Birmingham Buzz

The local music scene may be getting renewed national attention, but one e-zine has been on the beat for five years. The Birmingham Buzz offers interviews, advice and CD reviews for fans of homegrown rock.

It ain’t the prettiest of sites, but then, that’s rock ’n’ roll for ya.

What’s hot: Up-to-date club listings on the left, plus featured CD purchases on the home page. Also, forums with actual live users.

What’s needed: The only things missing are reviews of shows and concerts and an RSS feed.

Birmingham Rewound

This city’s past is more than fire hoses, dogs and steel mills. Birmingham Rewound is a colorful time capsule of where we shopped, what we ate, which drive-ins were cool and what TV stations had the dorkiest kids’ shows.

For old-timers, it’s a true nostalgia trip. For youngsters, it’s a past worth experiencing and understanding.

What’s hot: You can contribute your own Magic City Memories to the compilation of personal histories.

The Magic City Flickr Group

If a photo’s worth a thousand words, Birmingham has over 5 million words and counting. The Magic City Flickr Group represents more than 200 amateur and professional photographers around town who have pooled more than 5,000 photos.

Cityscapes, portraits, buildings and animals … no subject is too big or small for this gallery of city life.

What’s hot: An ongoing discussion of various topics adds personality to the pictures and picturetakers.

Folks interested in what is for now Alabama’s largest city may be interested in “five scorching sites” that “that will change how you look at the city, its culture and its future” from Wade on Birmingham.